Peace deals scrapped as Pakistani troops strike Taliban (2nd Roundup)

South Asia News

Jun 29, 2008, 16:11 GMT

Islamabad - Pro-Taliban militants on Sunday scrapped peace accords with the government of Pakistan as troops continued their offensive against rebels threatening Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province, officials and media reports said. 'Our advisory council has decided that Taliban should end all peace talks and two peace agreements signed so far with the government as a response to the ongoing operation in Khyber Agency,' Maulvi Omar, a spokesman of the militant Tehrik-i-Taliban umbrella organization said. If the operation continues we will resume attacks across the country, he warned. The security forces began the assault Saturday from the tribal Khyber district after rebel activity crept into Peshawar. Soldiers in armoured personnel carriers and tanks secured the district's main town Bara, about 15 kilometres from Peshawar, and set up posts on hilltops and main roads, which had been closed to traffic to seal off the area. Troops from Frontier Corps (FC) paramilitary forces blew up several offices of the radical religious groups Ansar-ul-Islam and Lashkar-e-Islam in Bara's Shalobar and Akakhel villages. 'The FC did not face any resistance as the compounds had already been abandoned by the miscreants,' a senior security official told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the insurgents had already pulled back to areas close to the Afghan border. Only one insurgent had so far been reported killed in the offensive. The Federal Interior Ministry's top official, Rehman Malik, said security forces had unearthed a sprawling torture facility in Bara, while recovering documents detailing kidnapping for ransom cases. The operation in Bara is likely to continue for at least four days but could be extended if needed to eliminate militants from the area, FC commander Major-General Alam Khattak told the media on Saturday. Reinforcements have also reached Khyber region which serves as the main supply route for US and NATO forces in neighbouring Afghanistan. The mountain territory in the past was free from militant clashes, but armed men loyal to Lashkar-e-Islam's chief Mangal Bagh often kidnapped people for ransoms and looted convoys destined for Afghanistan. Tension grew when Bagh's men infiltrated the provincial capital Peshawar and threatened barbers and owners of music and video shops to stop their trades, which the group believes un-Islamic. They also forced people in the region to observe puritanical Islamic laws as defined by them. 'No government can let its writ be challenged in the country,' Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said while speaking at a function in the eastern city of Lahore on Sunday. We cannot sit idle when citizens are publicly executed, minority people kidnapped and girls' schools are being torched, he added. The government was earlier showing restraint because of ongoing peace talks, which it started after coming into power in March. The shaky peace initiatives caused concerns among the partners in the US-led war on Islamic extremists. Pakistan's allies believe the controversial agreements would allow the pro-Taliban fighters to launch cross-border attacks on international forces and the Afghan national army. Meanwhile, two soldiers were killed Sunday by an explosion that targeted Pakistani forces fighting Islamic militants in the north-western Swat valley, according to the military. The bomb planted along a road in Swat's sub-district of Matta was detonated by remote control when military personnel were patrolling the area on foot, the Inter Services Public Relations directorate said. Separately, gunmen killed three civilians in two strikes in different areas of the restive valley. Violence is feared to rise here as one of the two peace agreements Taliban scrapped was with the rebels in Swat. The other one is in Darra Adam Khel, some 20 kilometers south of Peshawar.

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stickemJun 29th, 2008 - 19:34:45

You've got to admit, they couldn't have warned the Taliban about their strike any better if they'd sent them a singing telegram. It seems to me that if they really wanted to get rid of the guys, they would've been a nit more secretive about it.

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wowJun 29th, 2008 - 22:17:33

Why isn't there outrage over the fact that Pakistan has apparently had PEACE deals with these Taliban nuts all this time? No wonder Al Qaeda is coming back stronger than ever. As if Bush could be made to look any more oblivious.

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Peace deals scrapped as Pakistani troops strike Taliban (2nd Roundup)

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